The use of nuclear weapons – arguably the most devastating of all weapons of mass destruction – is currently not necessarily prohibited under international law.

Former Chadian leader Hissene Habre being escorted in to stand trial at the Palais de Justice in Dakar, Senegal in 2015. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in 2016 by judges of the Extraordinary African Chambers for crimes against humanity, rape, sexual slavery.
EPA/StringerNovember 7, 2016

This week, Japan announced a research plan for its New Scientific Whale Research Program in the Antarctic Ocean, to replace previous programs. In March this year, Japan’s previous whaling program, JARPA…

Japan’s whaling program was defeated in The Hague, but that might not stop more whales being taken in the future.
EPA/Tim Watters/Sea Shepherd Australia/AAPSeptember 8, 2014

Japan is reportedly set to release plans to resume killing whales in the Southern Ocean in the 2015-16 season. It seems like a defiant move, coming just six months after the International Court of Justice…

The judicial and political options in Egypt for appealing Peter Greste’s jail sentence do not appear to give much hope to his supporters.
EPA/Khaled ElfiqiJune 25, 2014

The guilty verdict and jail sentence handed to Australian journalist Peter Greste and his Al Jazeera English colleagues Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed by an Egyptian court for conspiring with the Muslim…

Given that the IPCC now considers that climate change is “unequivocal”, that human influence is “95-100%” likely to be the dominant cause, and that its effects are already being felt around world, it is…

Japan’s harvest of endangered minke whales was ruled not to be for scientific purposes.
EPA/Tim Watters/Sea Shepherd Australia/AAPApril 3, 2014

The International Court of Justice’s ruling this week that Japan’s Southern Ocean whaling program is not scientific does not represent an ultimate victory over whaling. The finer points of the court’s…